


Picture This

by Redlance



Series: OTP Prompt Ask 2020 [2]
Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:09:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28512447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redlance/pseuds/Redlance
Summary: Dani ventures out into the rain to look for Jamie and ends up finding more than she expected.
Relationships: Dani Clayton/Jamie
Series: OTP Prompt Ask 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2034505
Comments: 7
Kudos: 148





	Picture This

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a fill for the tumblr OTP Prompt Ask: #12 - "H-how long have you been standing there?” - “Long enough.” With one tiny tweak.

* * *

It’s another dreary day beyond the windows of Bly Manor. Dani doesn’t mind the rain, finds the patter of heavy drops against the pane strangely soothing. It’s early, too early for Owen to be here, for the kids to be awake, even Hannah is still asleep. Or Dani assumes she is, she hasn’t actually seen the housekeeper yet this morning. 

These quiet moments are rare, coming only at an hour such as this or late at night. The many minutes that surround them are filled to the brim with the sounds of children giggling, screaming, sometimes crying; with eager questions and cheeky requests. With friendly conversation between adults and the clattering of pots and pans in the kitchen. 

There are other moments, moments that sit adjacent to ones like this, but those are always bookended by leaving and returning to something. Here in the study, curled into an armchair that she’s turned to face the window and cradling a cup of tea that tastes just fine, Dani has left nothing but her bed and has nowhere to be for another hour and a half at least. So, she sits, enjoying the quiet and the rain, watching as it runs in sheets across the glass, distorting the view into little more than a blur of light and colour. 

Shades of green and grey, bits of orange, a flash of beige and brown that walks through Dani’s field of vision at a pace that isn’t leisurely but isn’t clipped either, unhurried by the downpour. 

Dani untucks her legs and straightens against the back of the armchair, moving so quickly that she almost sloshes tea over the side of the mug she’s holding. The blur is visible for approximately another two seconds before it disappears past the window frame and excitement ripples through Dani. A very specific kind of excitement, mixing two parts happiness with one part anxiety and a dash of anticipation-laced hope. 

Her heartbeat flutters, thumping a little faster and she rolls her eyes at herself, flustered by the reaction even though this happens every time she catches sight of Jamie. And it had been Jamie, Dani knows. Would recognise the shape of that two-sizes-too-big jacket she wears and the wide-brimmed leather hat keeping the rain from hitting her directly in the face through a thick fog at this point. 

Seems like every time she isn’t paying attention to herself, every time she doesn’t have her eyes consciously fixed on something, they end up drifting to Jamie. And Dani would think that was a problem, had thought that at first, except sometimes she catches Jamie looking back. 

Catches isn’t quite the right word, Dani thinks. To catch someone doing something implies that the person doing it doesn’t want anyone to see. 

But Jamie never looks away. She’ll just hold Dani’s gaze until Dani can’t breathe and has to drop it. Sometimes she smiles. She’d even, more recently, winked at her from across the kitchen table and Dani, in the middle of cutting vegetables for Owen, had almost sliced a finger off. 

Focusing on other things while Jamie is in the room is difficult, embarrassingly so, and Dani knows she needs to get a grip on it. To pay attention and not cut off any of her extremities, but she’s always been prone to daydreaming, her wandering mind a product of an active imagination and years, decades, of living a life a large part of you wishes to escape. Dani had lost herself in thoughts of running away, of a different life entirely, dreamed of a mother who cared more for her than just superficially. 

Dreamed of being allowed, being brave enough to be herself. 

Lately, she’s found herself trying to turn that last one into a reality. And it feels good, right, but it’s also terrifying. 

But Dani Clayton is a lot braver than people think, herself included sometimes. 

So, armed with a chest full of butterflies and a head filled with jittering ideas, Dani stands and walks herself to the kitchen where she deposits her almost empty cup into the deep basin of the sink. Then, not allowing herself to think too hard on it, she enters the mudroom and lifts her coat off one of the pegs, closing it around her body and then flips the fluffy purple hood up over her head. Slides her feet into a pair of rubber boots. 

And walks out into the rain. 

It’s a bit of a walk from the manor to the greenhouse, only a minute or two, but it’s long enough that her coat has turned a few shades darker after soaking up the rain on the way there, the fake fur trim of her hood hangs bedraggled around the edge of her vision. She’s happy when she makes it under the overhang of the greenhouse roof and wipes away the drop of water trickling along her nose as her eyes search for Jamie through wet windows. 

_ “All I want is a room with a view. A sight worth seeing, a vision of you.”  _

She hears the singing before she manages to catch sight of the gardener and lets the sound of it guide her gaze until she spies Jamie standing at the potting bench with her back to the doors. She’s shirked her big jacket off, leaving her in familiar overalls, the bottoms of which are visibly damp above her work boots. Her arms are bent at the elbows and sticking out, and Dani can’t see but she can picture Jamie’s fingers pressing down into dark dirt, staining her skin. 

The realisation that the singing she’s hearing is not, in fact, coming from any kind of radio or tape player, is startling. Not that it particularly sounds like it’s of studio quality - there’s no backing track or instrumental accompaniment - it’s just that the alternative is so far from Dani’s mind that she doesn’t even consider entertaining the idea until it’s presented to her.

_ “All I want is a room with view.” _

It is, Dani thinks, an entirely foreign sound, utterly new, but there’s a thread of familiarity strung through it that makes the hair on Dani’s arms and neck stand on end. She takes a single step inside the greenhouse, eyes carefully fixed on the back of Jamie’s head, waiting for her presence to be noticed while simultaneously hoping it isn’t. At least, not for a little while anyway. 

_ “I will give you my finest hour,” _ Jamie makes a series of noises that Dani can only assume are filling in for where the percussion instruments would chime in during the actual song.  _ “The one I spent watching you shower.” _ Jamie’s arms are moving, hands doing something different now that Dani can’t see.  _ “I will give you my finest hour, oh yeah.” _

Dani wrings her fingers together, a wide, toothy smile spreading across her face as she leans against one of the solid wooden gardening tables. And solid though the table may be, the plant pots littered atop it are apparently a tad unstable, and the distinct sound of terracotta hitting terracotta fills the space between the two women. Heard, undoubtedly, over the rain. 

Dani watches as Jamie’s posture tightens, body freezing for a two-count, maybe three, before she lets her shoulders relax a bit and her hands go back to work. 

“How,” Jamie croaks, then pauses to clear her throat. “How long have you been standing there?” 

And Dani tries to twist her lips into a shape that is less giddily delighted, she really does. Fails spectacularly.

“Long enough,” she replies, unable to keep the feelings currently rushing to the surface from leaking into her voice. 

“Rude to eavesdrop, you know.” Jamie sniffs, doesn’t turn around. “Or do they not teach you manners in America?” Her words could so easily be taken as confrontational, would have been a few weeks ago, but Dani knows the difference now. Knows quite a few of the different versions of Jamie; has been lucky enough to have Jamie show her those parts of herself.

“Mm,” Dani pretends to think about it. “Depends where you’re from, I think.”

“The whole of Iowa on the naughty list, then?” Jamie does, finally, look over at Dani at that, a single eyebrow raised in a way that makes Dani’s pulse quicken like she’s a teenager with a crush. 

Which, well….

She snares one corner of her bottom lip between her teeth for a brief second and is almost certain she sees Jamie’s eyes drop to her mouth. Almost. It’s just a flash, but Dani doesn’t think she’s seeing things this time.

“I-I didn’t mean to-”

“Did though.” Jamie turns to face her fully, mimicking Dani’s position and leaning against the bench. Her expression is calculatedly neutral as she pulls a rag out of her pocket and rubs it over her hands. It doesn’t do much to actually clean them, but it knocks the bigger clumps of dirt loose. She could be mad, Dani thinks. She could be annoyed, embarrassed. “This gonna be a new trend? Dani Clayton, doing things she’s not supposed to?” She tosses the rag onto the table behind her and then stretches her upper arms out across its edge. She gestures to Dani with one hand, one finger, head nodding towards her in unison. “Only, I can probably come up with a few ideas if you like.” 

Heat climbs along the ladder of Dani’s spine, up the back of her neck and to her cheeks. She can’t find it in herself to care, though, because Jamie could be so many things right now, mostly negative, but Dani knows, despite her tone, that she’s teasing. 

And the knowledge that Dani knows the difference, knows Jamie so well, sends a thrill through her. The gardener’s implications probably have something to do with it, too. 

“You have a lovely voice,” Dani says, means it, and feels affection swell behind her ribs when Jamie bashfully ducks her head and rubs a dirt-smeared hand across the back of her neck. She tilts her head to look at Dani, hand still idling at her neck, damp curls falling into her eyes. 

“They don’t seem to mind it.” The ‘they’ she speaks of is very obviously the plants and Dani surveys the plethora that the greenhouse is home to. “All that shite people spout about talking to ‘em,” she pauses and when Dani turns her attention to her once more, she sees that her attention is what Jamie was waiting for, “actually works.” 

Dani laughs, wrinkling her nose up.

“Really?” She’s unconvinced, face and pitch saying as much, and Jamie straightens, stepping away from the bench.

“Really. Surprised mine aren’t sick of me yet, the amount I talk their leaves off.” She’s smiling, small and soft, and the butterflies in Dani’s stomach kick up into a frenzy, as if to remind her that they’re still there. “Think they like singing better, though.” Jamie inclines her head towards the far side of the greenhouse and starts walking that way. 

_ I think I could listen to you talk for hours and never get sick of you, _ Dani muses with a sigh as she follows Jamie deeper into the tiny jungle.

“Should take your coat off,” Jamie points to a line of hooks on the wall. Most of them are holding gardening tools, but there’s a jacket hanging from one. “Let it dry.” 

It’s an invitation, Dani realises, and it’s one she readily, happily, ecstatically accepts. 

And if she forgets that she actually does have somewhere to be at a certain time this morning, if it takes Hannah venturing out into the still-pouring rain to look for her to remind Dani of that, well. 

A morning spent brushing elbows with Jamie, seeing her smile and hearing her laugh as Dani struggles to pry a plastic container off one of the plants. 

Dani will happily take the burn of embarrassment if the payoff is a moment like that.

**Author's Note:**

> The song featured is "Picture This" by Blondie, which I also used as the title. Quality song, go give it a listen.


End file.
